


Immortal Dualities

by neoatlas



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), The Glass Scientists (Webcomic)
Genre: Crossover, Family Relationships - Freeform, Flashbacks, Found Family Dynamics, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Immortality, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Mental Health Issues, Mild Angst, Morally Gray Changelings, Multi, Multiple Personalities, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Character Death, Past Jekyll/Lanyon but only if you squint, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, a shitload of headcanons, eventual identity reveal, musical theatre reference because the author is little shit, set during first season of Trollhunters, they are too powerful, this fic contains the reason why jekyll and hyde shoudn't really get along
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24022588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neoatlas/pseuds/neoatlas
Summary: Almost a century and a half after the Society of Arcane Sciences dissolved, an immortal and eternally bored Henry Jekyll moves from London in order to pay a favor to his changeling uncle and tutor a new young alchemist. Suffice to say, his endless days become less boring.
Relationships: Barbara Lake/Walter Strickler | Stricklander, Dr. Henry Jekyll & Edward Hyde, Dr. Henry Jekyll & Original Character, Dr. Henry Jekyll & Walter Strickler | Stricklander, Jim Lake Jr. & Dr. Henry Jekyll & Edward Hyde, Jim Lake Jr. & Walter Strickler | Stricklander, Jim Lake Jr./Claire Nuñez, Toby Domzalski & Jim Lake Jr. & Claire Nuñez
Comments: 7
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> apparently, crossovering two hyperfixations of mine is my reason to live.  
> this one started as a joke in my head. i noticed some similarities between jekyll and strickler (ok, it was the nose), then 'oh, they could be related' and my hands slipped into this. well, technically they aren't really related, since jekyll is only related to strickler's familiar, but they pretty much have a nephew-uncle relationship.  
> i may have proofread this, but english is not my native language, so the grammar/punctuation might be a little bit off.

At the end, Frankenstein was right about one thing: a true scientist didn’t need fundraisers and patrons to sustain themselves. Well, they were still helpful, but the Society needed money and Jekyll shouldn’t rely completely on the exposition and the kindness of other people. He was an alchemist, after all. The main thing a traditional alchemist tried to do w as creating gold from ordinary metals. Jekyll knew he would need a philosopher’s stone for that, but the all of the multiple recipes he had access to didn’t work.

He dared not looking in the mirror, but he still could hear Hyde laughing at him. Apparently, the philosopher’s stone was a myth according to every other neoalchemist he could talk to (wich included Miss Ito and Frankenstein, wich not much of a broad net, and the last one called him ridiculous), and also to the modern books he had access to. But they also said it was impossible to split the human soul in a half, and that was exactly what he did. So, he kept searching and testing recipes. Until Hyde found a particular old alchemy book with a shady dealer in Blackfog, wich he pressured his alter-ego to take home.

That one recipe had particularly weird and rare ingredients. Most were things like boiled rare plants (wich he could find with his lodgers), phoenix feathers and werewolf fangs (wich Jasper willingly handed him). But the recipe also called for a fragment of Heartstone, whatever that was. And not only him didn’t knew what it was, but also none of his legal ingredient providers inside and outside of the society had an idea. Neither the dealers he had Hyde ask at Blackfog. This stone, wich seemed to be the main ingredient of the formula and the big basis for the stone. The only person who didn’t straight-up tell him they didn’t knew what he was talking about was his uncle Walter, who was a historian and shouldn't know a lot about philosopher’s stones.

“Where did you read about it?” Walter asked him, changing his previously calm and friendly tone to a serious, whispery voice, as if he didn’t want no one to hear them, even if nobody was around (maybe except for Hyde showing up in the window’s reflex, suddenly very interested in the conversation).

“This old alchemy book my assistant bought at Blackfog, the contraband fair. Very shady, don’t ask me where it did actually came from,” Jekyll answered mindlessly.

“I need to see this book right now,” his uncle ordered in an almost menacing tone, looking around in the bookshelves of Dr. Jekyll’s personal office. 

Henry took the big, leather-coated book from inside his desk drawers, rising it by the side of his head, “this is the one. Why do you need it?”

“I would have to kill you if you knew,” said Walt, now adopting a rigid posture.

“I have an horde of mad scientists who are loyal to me,” Jekyll lied mimicking the way his uncle spoke and trying to remain calm and not let Hyde take over. The lodgers were no longer that loyal to him after Frankenstein arrived.

“Fine,” he took a deep breath, “have you ever heard of Trolls?”

“I am familiar with them as in ‘I took mythology in college’. I’ve never seen one in real life.”

“Do you believe in the possibility that these creatures exist?”

“I’ve got a werewolf and Frankenstein’s monster under this roof. I would believe in everything at this point.”

“You’ve never seen one for a good reason. There’s a whole organization devoted to guaranteeing that no human finds out. They live in underground cities, and Heartstones are their main source of light and warmth.”

“And you aren’t human, I assume.”

“Do you believe it?”

“As I said. Werewolves. Frankenstein’s monster. The huge leviathan skull Lavender keeps in the common area.”

“But why do you assume I’m not human?”

“You know about that. You said no human knows,” said Jekyll, “so, where can I find a fragment of Heartstone? It’s a matter of life and death. Quite literally, I would say.”

“It’s not that easy. No human has entered a Heartstone city before.”

“Have you?”

“Oh well, it’s not that simple,” Strickler explained, “I’m a changeling. A shapeshifting Troll. My kind’s primary function is guaranteeing no human finds out.”

“And that’s the reason of that ‘I would have to kill you’ speech?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t answer my question. Can you get me that fragment?”

“I may have a few agents undercover in the nearest Heartstone,” the changeling sighed, “I can get you a piece of it in a week.”

And then he did. And Jekyll successfully created a philosopher’s stone. Suddenly, the Society of Arcane Sciences was out of debt and it’s founder would be forever in his early 30’s. And then, time passed. The Society dissolucted as all of its members died of old age. Jekyll tried to find more lodgers, but apparently the rogue sciences were becoming unpopular. He lived enough to see new plagues, new wars, entire countries dying out and being born. Travel around the world, once again, and seeing it change. As he lost everyone else around him, he also got to good terms with his alter-ego.

And then he got bored. He never had to move around or change his name, he just went by his surname and people in London assumed he was an heir of his own. He could always stop taking the elixir and start aging normally, but he always feared what would happen to Hyde once he died of old age. So he kept going. Kept going until he could see the next millenium, spending his endless days locked in the building that used to be the Society of Arcane Sciences’ headquarters, and now was just a bunch of empty corridors. He barely talked to anyone but Hyde and Strickler, but then the latest got a promotion on that “hiding monsters away from humanity” job and moved overseas. Fortunately, the 2010’s technology allowed them to keep quick contact.

“You’re still an alchemist, right?” Strickler asked during a phone call.

“Picking up those books in college was a one-way ticket, I think,” Jekyll answered indifferently, “once an alchemist, always an alchemist. More of an alchemist now, I’d say. I’ve even made some _homunculi_ last week.”

“Oh well, I think I will need a lot of advice in the following weeks. We have a new alchemist in the order. A young polymorph changeling, talented but still a beginner.”

“You’re lucky in finding one, even if they’re a beginner. Alchemists are _very_ hard to find nowadays,” Henry curled up in his office chair. He had adapted a lot to new technology since the victorian times, but he insisted his office remained almost the same, just with better electric lightning and wi-fi. His laptop seemed totally out of place in the timeless room. It was his comfortable workspace, after all, “and tutoring them would be a delight. Why nobody told immortality would be so boring and depressing?”

“In my defence, I’ve got a job that never gets boring,” Walter joked, “well, miss Gerstäcker will be happy to hear that. She moved from Germany only a couple weeks ago, nothing is being easy for her.”

 _Moving_. Why hadn’t he thought of that earlier? Oh well, he had, but he liked that old building in the historical centre of London and didn’t have a reason to move anywhere else. Now, he had kinda found one.

“I had an idea. Call you back later,” the scientist said quickly, hanging the phone before he could get a response, “Hyde, how do you feel about moving to America?”

 _Anything to get out of this hellhole_ , his reflexion said, _London stopped being fun after Blackfog stopped existing. But why you mentioned moving only now? Fuck, there’s been 150 years._

“I didn’t have a reason, Hyde. Now, if we move to this Arcadia where my uncle lives, I can tutor this Gerstäcker girl, and I’m pretty sure the Order of Janus will have some duty for you. And that’s how our boredom ends.”

_What kind of ‘duty’? In case you didn’t notice in all these years, I’m not actually your assistant._

“Walter has mentioned breaking into places, stealing stuff and even killing people as some changelings’ job. You can do just what those changelings do, you know, an excuse to do the _fun illegal stuff_ I never let you do,” Henry spoke those two words imitating Hyde’s high-pitched voice.

 _Sign me up, then_ , his alter-ego’s picture in the mirror grinned.

“I’m moving to Arcadia,” Jekyll said as soon as he noticed his uncle had picked up the phone.

“What? Why?”

“I’m bored. I need something new,” this was not exactly the truth, he loved the old but well-preserved building, but who knew what a change in airs would do, “besides, tutoring this new alchemist of yours will be easier if I’m actually there.”

“Alright,” Walter sighed, “do you need help to find an apartment or plane tickets?”

“Nah, I’ve already taken care of that. I move in one week.”

“Good for you, then. Call me if you need help with anything.”

“I will, thank you,” he said, before turning off the phone and laying his head on the back of his chair.

With all the packing and shipping off stuff to Arcadia? It would be a long week.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, i learned something about myself. i'm used to write 3k-5k chapters but i figure out i can't do this in english and a 1700 chapter was already pain to write and i don't have a cue if it's good or not because i have only read super old books and fanfiction in english. i'm 100% open for constructive cripticism on my grammar and writing, specially the use of they/them pronouns.  
> so, tori gerstäcker is my oc, the new alchemist of the order of janus and jekyll's apprentice. they are genderfluid, but i tought it would be weird if i kept saying "oh, today they're female" "oh, today they are male" "oh, today they are neither" would be weird and i don't currently have the skill to do that in a good way. so, i'll write them with gender neutral pronouns all the time and occasionaly i'll give some description of what they currently look like.  
> so, i hope you enjoy it and i also hope it's not as bad as i think it might be.

_You are forgetting the thing_.

“What thing?” Jekyll whispered angrily at his reflexion.

 _The thing! The weird shiny liquid thing!_ Hyde screamed, _this is why it isn’t working_!

“You’re talking about... oh, you’re right,” he said before pouring the small beaker’s content into the bigger beaker, lifting the glass recipient to the level of his eyes and seeing the colors change from a bright red-orange to a stormy, misty gray.

“Were you talking to me, Doctor?” his apprentice asked, leaning against the counters.

“Just the annoying voice in my head, miss Gerstäcker,” he answered, putting the beaker back in his work counters, “did you pay attention to what I just did?”

“Sorta,” said his apprentice. When Walter mentioned ‘miss Gestäcker’ in the phone, Henry was expecting anything but the young polymorph changeling with a very limited and amateur knowledge of alchemy.

“So, it’s not that important actually. I just mixed Mud Phoenix mucus into the poison. While Mud Phoenix mucus is not venomous on itself, it does potentialize the effect of a lot of botanical poisons.”

“That _is_ interesting,” Gerstäcker said, “but when will we get to philosopher’s stones and _homunculi_? Like, starter-level alchemy?”

“Contrary to popular belief, alchemy isn’t limited to creating gold out of iron and creating life out of inanimate beings. It’s the most vast area of occult sciences and it’s starts off with brewing poisons,” he explained, “but some insist that the actual purpose of alchemy is purifying the human soul. We’ll get to that, however.”

“That is useless. I’m not human! Nobody here but you is!” the german polymorph said, rolling their eyes and sitting on the empty white counter.

“Spiritual alchemy has a lot to do with changelings such as you, Tori. The way you are assigned to familiars is not much different to my experiments.”

“Wich experiments, Doctor?”

“We’ll ge to those, eventually. And please, call me Henry,” he said, handing an old leather-coated book to his apprentice, “this was my introduction to alchemy. I heavily recommend reading the highlighted chapters.”

“Oh, homework?”

“Not really, they are actually a pretty fun read. Now, if you’re too frustrated with the poisons and venoms, don’t feel bad because we shall create a few basic _homunculi_ next week. They are small and have very little use, but also the basis for bigger homunculi.”

“I’m happy to hear that!” Tori said, taking Jekyll’s book and putting it inside their backpack, “see you next week, then?”

“See you next week,” he said, nodding to his apprentice as they got outside of the room.

 _Will you teach them how to split souls like you did with us?_ Hyde teased from the huge mirror Jekyll had hanged in the lab, _that would be interesting._

“I plan to teach them the theory, but what they’ll do with it? It’s none of my damn business,” said Jekyll, taking his stuff from the counters and organizing all his beakers back in the cabinets. The room consisted in a small but functional lab in the headquarters of the Order of Janus. Everything was either black or white: the white walls, the black flooring, the white counters with black toppings and the bright ceiling lights. The poisonous plants laying on the counters were the only colorful thing in that boring place. There had been only two weeks since he had left the Society of Arcane Sciences, but he already missed his own laboratory-office and all of his wooden furniture and his cabinets full colorful poisons. The minimalistic architecture of the Order of Janus’ headquarters had it’s charm, but he missed the Society’s hallways, filled with the weirdest but most fascinating things he kept from his late lodgers like a museum. Heck, he already missed that old building.

“You and miss Gerstäcker seem to be getting along pretty well,” said Walter, entering the laboratory.

“Yeah, they are a good kid,” Henry answered, organizing his empty beakers in the glass cabinet.

 _Ask him if there’s any work tonight_ , reminded him that one squeaky voice from the mirror, _the only bar in this egg of a town is closed, so I have nothing to do_.

“Oh, and Mr. Hyde told me to ask you if there are any bounties or anything for him tonight.”

“Tell him to meet me in the Goblin room. What is Mr. Hyde to you, again, Henry? You never talked about him before you moved… and you seem pretty close to him.”

“He’s the result of one of my experiments. Gone right, but not quite like I imagined, or wanted,” Jekyll said, leaving out the fact that Hyde was his second personality.

“Is he… one of those _humunculi_ Tori is obsessed with?”

“Oh, no… it’s weirder.”

 _Yes, Doc. Because for sure I’m weirder than Frankenstein’s creature and those things they used to sell at Blackfog,_ snarked Edward, causing Dr. Jekyll to roll his eyes, _just admit I’m your fucking self. Like, the cooler version of yourself._

“Okay, something tells me to ask no more. Just tell him to meet me in the room where we keep the Goblins in half an hour, I might not know him really well but I feel he’s going to get along with those little.”

_Goblins? So, no blood, no stealing? No crime? This job used to be fun._

“Goblins? Oh, hell be disappointed. But sure, he’ll be there.”

_Yeah, sure I will. There is nothing better to do than fucking clean Goblin shit, appearently._

“You know, there probably are bars and nightclubs open in San Francisco, wich is not that far from here. You could just take a taxi,” Henry said to his reflexion after his changeling uncle left the room.

_...Oh, I didn’t think this trough._

“Really, any other town nearby might have something open,” the alchemist teased.

_Stop it or I’ll get Moreau._

“As you wish,” Henry said, grabbing some ingredients from the cabinets, “I left the formula at home. It seems we will have to spend the half an hour Walter gave us making the formula.”

 _Call me when you’re done then_ , said Hyde, disappearing from the mirror, leaving place to his actual reflexion.

Precisely half an hour later, their green residual transformation fluid was left all over the ground, while a short blonde man who for some reason still wore victorian attire roamed trough the corridors of the Order of Janus trying to find a room labeled as ‘Goblin room’.

“Edward! We were waiting for you,” Strickler said with an open posture, seconds after Hyde finally found the right room and opened it’s door.

“Call me ‘Edward’ again and say goodbye to your knees how you know ‘em,” menaced Hyde. It wasn’t like he hated to be called by his first name, but he barely knew this people, and besides being technically related to the Stricklander guy, he didn’t really trust him. Nor did Jekyll, even if he wouldn’t admit. They both knew changelings weren’t trustworthy. And letting them get under their skin? No thanks.

 _Didn’t you pick this name?_ murmured Doctor Jekyll from the back of his mind, getting only a ‘shut up’ as a response, wich Hyde was pretty sure he heard.

“So, must of our changelings are busy tonight and we need someone to help us moving the goblins to a new locations,” said a tall asian woman beside Stricklander ( _Ms. Nomura_ , Jekyll remembered him), “and you seemed to get along with our goblins.”

“So what? I’m their babysitter now?” Hyde crossed his arms, “and _why_ would you need to move their nest to a new location? Don’t you have the structure here?”

“Yes, we do, but the thing is that we are working on something in the local museum and nests of goblins have an historic of being a good cover-up,” said the british changeling with his palms joined in front of his torso, mimicking Jekyll’s mannerisms and body language. Probably because he assumed it would help Hyde trust him. Idiots. As if Hyde would trust someone like Jekyll if they weren’t basically the same person. The guy was almost as a big of a farse as those people, if they even could be called that.

“Fine,” he finally spat, “at least I won’t be cleaning goblin shit this time.”

**——————————————**

The very next day, Henry appeared in the Order of Janus’ headquarters. And the day after that. Not that he needed to, Tori could only see him for their classes two times a week, but he was almost done with the moving in his new apartment and had nothing else to do. Should he, like, find a job? This is what people did nowadays, right? Gosh, even if he didn’t need the money, he should be spending his afternoons doing something but brewing poisons he would use for nothing and minutely listing the metals that could be turned to gold with his philosopher’s stones, or his time in Arcadia would be no different to back in London.

“Do you have a job?” he said, casually looking up from the Troll alchemy book his uncle had lent him, “like, you can’t spend your time only with the Order, right?”

“I teach history in the local High School,” Walter said, looking up from whatever he was doing in his desk, “why do you ask?”

“I need a job,” Jekyll shrugged, “do you know of any laboratories around here that could use someone with three different doctorates in chemistry and has managed to turn lead into gold? I also don’t need a salary.”

“Small town, you know. There aren’t really a lot of laboratories around here and I only know of the local school’s, but we already have a chemistry teacher.”

 _Are you thinking what I am thinking?_ Hyde showed up in the reflexion of the window’s glass mischievously looking at his counterpart.

“...Perhaps,” Jekyll whispered, returning his attention to his book.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyde persuades Jekyll into letting him attempt murder, Jekyll gets another job and his new students are suspicious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey folks! i managed to do something a little bit longer this time. i can't title chapters to save my life, but if i had to title this it would be named "people thinking and joking about jekyll being a vampire: parts 1 and 2" because as he is a red-eyed immortal with a weird relationship with mirrors, i plan to make this a running gag. i know shit about the american school system and couldn't find a good research source, so a few things might be a little bit off. we also have a little bit of claire's pov in the end, because i needed something in the pov of a student who doesn't know shit about the magic stuff in arcadia.

“We cannot kill a man just because we want his job,” Jekyll said, arms crossed, “I thought we had already talked about this! No unnecessary blood spilling!”

 _But I said taking him out of the way! Not killing him!_ Hyde argued.

“Isn’t that the same thing? At least when _you_ say it?” he rolled his eyes, “don’t think I forgot about the governors of the hospital.”

_No! We could just, like, pay him so he leaves the job? Or find some dirt on him and blackmailing him into doing it?_

“You’re literally talking about blackmailing a guy we barely know, just because of a job? Is there any idea of yours that isn’t illegal?”

 _Why would_ you _want things to be_ legal _, Doctor? Gods, you’re such an hypocrite. After all your experiments…_

“That’s different,” Henry tuned his back to his dining room mirror, crossing his arms once again.

 _No, it’s not. And if you get this job, may I remind you that you’ll have contact with a lot of young people, and there’s the chance you find someone as passionate about alchemy as you and that Gerstäcker kid, or passionate about any other of those Rogue Sciences. You could come back to London, a couple years from now, with a couple new lodgers…_ Hyde suggested, finally seeing Doctor Jekyll consider his proposition and sigh, _and you’ll have more opportunities to keep an eye at our suspicious relative. Don’t you dare saying you don’t distrust him and his “people” as much as I do._

“Okay, fine!” the alchemist spoke, “I’ll let you do whatever you want. But please, be discreet. The last thing I would want is you being wanted by the police because you did something impulsive. Again.”

_Okay, fine, fine! You’re no fun. I won’t disappoint you, Doctor._

And then Hyde did whatever he thought he had to do. Doctor Jekyll didn’t have any interest in what his alter-ego had done or said to the poor chemistry teacher, but it was effective since the man left his job and the town. So, a couple days after that, Jekyll found himself in the local high school’s building, handing his weirdly extensive curriculum with his fake first name on it and being hired on spot.

“What are you doing in here?” he heard the posh voice as he headed out. For a second, he almost forgot his uncle also worked in there.

“The old chemistry teacher left his job. And you know, my four doctorates of boredom were actually useful for something now,” Henry said, lifting his shoulder in a half shrug.

“Oh, yes, and that’s weirdly convenient for you.”

“Yes, just that. Convenient. What would I do? Poison him into leaving his job?”

“Or sending your creepy errand boy behind him.”

 _I’m more than an errand boy and you know that, but go on,_ Hyde commented from the back of their mind, causing Henry to roll his eyes.

“Just… don’t do anything stupid. Neither of you,” Stricklander continued, “it wasn’t easy to get our international council of changelings to let you work for us, as you’re not one of us. It wouldn’t be good if the only humans working for us were the ones who end up exposing changelings to the world.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t,” said Jekyll, as he nodded and headed out of the school campus.

_Can you believe this guy?_

“We share similar feelings about the changelings and Walter, Hyde,” Henry sighed, as he was far enough from anyone who could hear them, “but he’s still our uncle. And our boss, may I remind you. And you also agreed to work for him.”

 _He is_ your _uncle. And I agreed to do, you know, what you call the ‘dirty work’ and I call ‘the fun stuff’. I didn’t sign up to help them with goblins or whatever._

“Look, we have the rest of the day spare and I don’t have to go to work on any of my two jobs until tomorrow,” Jekyll changed the subject, “I’ll let you out. To compensate the last two times I let you out and you had to get work done.”

_The last time you let me out was actually kind of fun. Wait until I tell--_

“I told you I didn’t want to hear about it!” he shouted, looking around frenetically the next second, “gods, you’re lucky these streets are so empty by this time of the day.”

_I’m lucky? You’re the guy screaming alone on the streets like an absolute madman. If anyone is lucky here, it’s you._

“Enough, Hyde,” he remarked, followed by a deep sigh, “we’ll drink the formula once we get home. Just be silent until then. I need to hear my own thoughts sometimes.”

 _As you wish, good Doctor,_ Hyde snarled before his squeaky voice faded out of Jekyll’s toughts.

**——————————————**

“So you did get an actual job, then?” Tori asked, mindlessly leaning against the counters as they watched their mentor mixing up chemicals on his set.

“Yes, I did. Boredom can do this to people.”

“I thought you slept by day. You know, like a vampire or something. After all, we have our lessons at super-late hours sometimes. But if you’re working by day now, when you’re sleeping?” they asked, then turning to a joke tone, “are you a vampire?”

“No! I’m very human,” he protested, hearing a _I wouldn’t say that coming from Hyde_ somewhere inside their shared brain, “but I can’t bring myself to sleep more than a hour or two per day. Nightmares and all thar jazz.”

“This is very unhealthy for you. We changelings need less sleep than you humans, and ‘two hours a day’ is not good even for a changeling. And this comes from one who is a grad student.”

“I’m a graduated medical doctor, I know what is healthy and what isn’t,” he stated.

“I thought you were a chemist.”

“I’m both. I had a lot of spare time in the last years, I thought it would be fun to defend a few more theses.”

“I know you are older than you look, because, you know, alchemy and philosopher’s stones and… well, that. But how old you truly are?”

“I’m going 165 this year. You’re looking at an actual victorian gentleman,” he said, followed by a humorless smile, “and yes, the hygiene was bad in that time in comparison to nowadays, and I’m being kind.”

His apprentice snorted, “jeez, Doc. I thought you weren’t older than 80. You won’t start aging at some point?”

“No. Once the elixir of the philosopher’s stone is taken regularly, it’s eternal life… eternal youth. It’s flawed, however. I get a lot of white hairs,” Henry shrugged, “didn’t you read about that?”

“I’ve read a lot of things. I couldn’t find a good source on Troll alchemy so I just went for human alchemy. There’s a lot of stuff there that’s just… speculated. I had a hard time telling what right, what was wrong and what would just blow my parents’ house up,” said the changeling, “this is why I was so excited when Stricklander told me he knew a real, alive alchemist who could teach me the ways of… _real alchemy_.”

“I understand the feeling,” he smiled, looking at the clock hanging on the wall, “it looks like our time ended. We have both have classes now, I guess.”

“Good luck on your first day with dealing feral teenagers!”

“Something tells me I’m gonna need it,” said Jekyll, before packing his stuff and getting out of the lab.

**——————————————**

Nobody was expecting it when Mr. Owen, the friendly man in his mid-50s who used to teach chemistry at Arcadia Oaks’ public High School left his job, the town and possibly the country and none of his students really knew why. Of course, rumours spiraled trough those poorly-illuminated hallways, like in any high school, but it was strange that no one knew the real truth, not even the teachers they asked. And Mr. Owen didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would do it so suddenly, without even telling his colleagues.

Claire was upset about it. Most students who had chemistry were. Someone who disliked the teacher was very hard to find. But still, she was more curious than upset. Barely a week after Mr. Owen left, a new teacher occupied his old position. And that was even stranger. This new teacher was strange.

Did he wear colored contacts? He looked like he wore colored contacts, as his eyes looked like they were some sort of blood red, as a vampire’s. Maybe they were just some super-saturated brown and the lightning in the room made them look red, as he didn’t seem the kind of person who would be wearing contacts. In fact, the red eyes were the most unusual thing about the english-accented man, who sounded straight out of those BBC shows her parents watched sometimes. Great, this is exactly what Arcadia oaks needed. _British vampires_. As if her mother didn’t have enough things happening in Arcadia to use on her stupid reelection campaing.

At least he wasn’t a bad teacher. He introduced himself as _Doctor_ Jekyll, wich probably meant he had a doctorate and having a doctor, and he as quite passionate about what he taught. At the end, having a british vampire as the chemistry teacher didn’t look that bad.

Chemistry was her last class of the day, right before she had to meet her fellow drama kids to play rehearsal. On her way to the school theatre, she saw her co-star waling into the boys’ locker room.

“Hey Jim!” she greeted, as she waved to the boy who stood by the locker room’s door, “you’re going to rehearsal today, right?”

“Uh... yeah,” he said in response, hesitant, “I was just going to change.”

“To your costume? You know you don’t need to rehearse in a full set of armour, right?” she asked, “also, your costume doesn’t look very comfortable.”

“You’re right,” Jim smiled humorlessly.

“So, what are we waiting for? I think Miss Janeth won’t bother if we appear a couple minutes earlier.”

He murmured something like an ‘ok’, before Claire taking him by the wrist and practically dragging him to the theatre. Little did he know that she was doing this just so he wouldn’t miss rehearsal as he did in the last time, as Steve was his understudy and nobody wanted him to end up as Romeo permanently.

The door was open, but the huge room was empty and dark, “I think we left the scripts backstage last time,” Claire commented, “I turn the lights in the tech room on and you take the scripts.”

He nodded, before heading to the stage and disappearing behind the curtains. With the lights on and no Romeo with a script on his hands, Claire also headed backstage.

Half of the drawers were open and the scripts were nowhere to be found. Of course, she had the new, inexperienced theatre kid find the printed scripts, of course he wouldn’t know where they were.

“Janeth keeps the scripts in the cabinets, right under those plastic boxes where we keep the costumes. It’s a little bit hard to see,” she opened the cabinet’s doors, taking a pile of papers from it and handing one to him.

“”Did you memorize your speeches?” he asked, paging trough his stack of stapled sheets.

“I did, and you?” “A great part of them,” he shrugged, “I didn’t have a lot of time this week.”

“If you ever need someone to help you memorizing this stuff, I’m here,” she said. Of course she wanted to get to know her co-star. Not only they would spend a lot of time together (but only if she managed to drag him to every rehearsal so he didn’t miss them), but he was also super weird and some sort of a mystery and she was willing to find out whatever the heck he was up to. And speaking of mysteries… “hey, do you have chemistry?”

“No, I left chemistry for the next semester,” he answered, “but I heard of the whole Mr. Owen and Dr. Jekyll thing.”

“Oh, really? Did you heard that Dr. Jekyll is a _vampire_?” she said that in a joking tone, but he didn’t seem to get it since he looked at her with one of the serious faces she had ever seen.

“What?” he looked... _slightly panicked_ , to say the least.

“Calm down, it was a joke! But seriously, I think he was wearing contacts or the lights did something. I didn’t know people could have such red eyes.”

“Red? Like, bloodshot?”

“No. Like, red irises.”

“Oh, shit,” was the last thing he murmured, seating besides her on the stage, before their fellow drama kids entered the room followed by their teacher.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is a little bit longer! this is technically a canon divergent for trollhunters (taking place in the first season. this chapter is mostly the fifth episode's events), but oh well, a few things change and it would be no fun if they didn't. jim and toby find out about the changelings and claire figures the stuff out earlier and it's partly because jekyll and hyde are there.

As Ms. Janeth told them how the reading dynamics would work, two other teachers entered the room. He recognized one of them as Mr. Strickler, and assuming by the fact that he had never seen the other man in the corridors and that he wore a white lab coat, the guy besides him was probably the new chemistry teacher. He couldn’t see the guy’s red eyes that Claire mentioned from that distance, trough.

“Uh, what are them two doing here?” the girl playing Rosaline (whose name he couldn’t quite remember) asked, gesturing with her head to the two men who had just entered the room.

“I believe Miss Janeth asked me to verify historical inaccuracies in our remastered scripts,” Strickler said, looking at Miss Janeth.

“He’s right, I asked him this favour,” she nodded.

“And I’m here because I don’t have an American driving licence and uncle Walt is my ride home,” added the man in a lab coat, sipping something that was presumably coffee from his travel mug.

“Wait, _‘uncle Walt’_?” someone in the circle asked, cleary confused.

“If you couldn’t notice the family resemblance,” the history teacher sighed, “now continue your script reading, we would hate to bother.”

So they started the dynamic reading, wich took not much more than an hour. After that, the went to actual rehearsal.

After that, he knew he needed to look at the new teacher and draw his own conclusions. Maybe he wasn’t really a vampire (did vampires exist? He wouldn’t be surprised if the answer was yes), but Jim also didn’t doubt the existence of shapeshifting Trolls that passed as human or some other human-like red eyed creature. Still, he would have to ask Blinky later.

After rehearsal, he pretended he was on his way to the restroom to purposefully bump into the chemistry teacher.

And Claire was right.

Those weren’t human eyes. They didn’t look like contacts, nor a light effect on weirdly-saturated brown eyes. They were clearly blood-red, and even with the human-looking white sclera, they still looked disturbingly similar to some races of Trolls he had seen in Heartstone. Unsettling and natural at the same time.

He’d definitely have to check about human-looking creatures with red eyes when he met Blinky later.

**——————————————**

And then, later came. Later also know as the time when he should be sleeping, as escaping from his mom when she wasn’t working or sleeping was quite different, when Jim and Toby were supposed to meet Blinky for training in the Hero’s Forge.

“Claire joked about him being a vampire, Tobes,” he argued, “there is no way I’m seeing things.”

“Sure, you know what you saw, I get it!” the red-haired boy spat back, “but there is always an explanation for that! The lights could be playing tricks.”

“You’ll know when you see them.” Jim rolled his eyes. “Hey, Blinky, what do you have for us today?”

“I’ll be giving your fragile human muscles a day out of physical training.” The blue-skinned Troll showed them the book he had in hands. Big, old, beautifully bound in carved leather. “Vendel told me it’s about time I teach you two Troll history and maybe a little bit of Trollish language, and I agree with him. But it will be more comfortable if we do it in my library.”

“Before we go, I have to ask something,” Jim interrupted. “Do you know of any… you know, human-Troll hybrids? Trolls that can turn into humans?”

“Why do you ask, Master Jim?” Blinky seemed to be trying to keep a friendly tone, with no success as he sounded serious and concerned.

“We have a new teacher. He seems very human, but his eyes don’t.”

“Wait, what color are said eyes?”

“Blood red,” he stated. “I don’t think the lights were playing tricks.”

“Red eyes?” the Troll sounded relieved, “Master Jim, do you realize how much human-passing creatures out there have red eyes? Fae, a few wizards, vampires…”

“Wait, vampires do exist?” Toby interrupted.

“They are not abundant in any country of America. You probably won’t meet any soon.”

“So he can’t be a vampire?” Jim asked.

“I’m not saying that.”

“Then what are you saying? Blinky, I feel you’re hiding something from us,” the Trollhunter said as they walked towards Blinky’s library.

“We’ll talk about that when we get to somewhere more private. It isn’t safe here.”

The boys just nodded and remained silent until they arrived to the cave.

“Changelings,” Blinky said seriously, taking another book from his bookshelves.

“What?”

“That’s what I was hiding from you. Sorry, Masters, but it isn’t safe to talk about them so open in the public,” he explained, “they are an old guild of Troll spies, shapeshifters, in the surface world, have been around since Merlin’s times. Most of them have red irises and yellow sclera, unless we are talking about hybrids. Why else do you think this teacher of yours is a changeling?”

“The old teacher in his position disappeared suddenly. He left the country only for this new guy to appear right after.”

“Jimbo, you aren’t talking coherently.” Toby rolled his eyes. “Have you ever watched a investigation movie or TV show? The proof is barely circumstantial! And besides, as far as he know, he could be anything from a human with a strange genetic condition to a fucking vampire. It’s not like you’ve seen him transforming into a Troll to be sure he is a shapeshifter spy.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, Tobes. If he’s related to Strickler, they both would have to be changelings, anyway.”

“You know what humans say. Trust, but verify,” Blinky interrupted. “If you’d like to verify, there is an artifact that can force a transformation in a changeling.”

**——————————————**

The very next day, all the 11th grade students in Mr. Stricker’s history class had a museum visit in the afternoon. When they were in front of the museum, Ms. Nomura, the curator who seemed to be old friends with their history teacher asked something about _his shadow_. No other students were paying attention, but Jim presumed they were talking about Dr. Jekyll as they were always seen together. Jim moved a little bit closer in an attempt to listen better.

“I drove him to the headquarters after lunch. He told me he needed to work on something in the lab.” Strickler shrugged.

“Oh, when you see him, tell him I’ll need his little lover to help me assemble the bridge tonight,” reported Nomura.

“Are you talking about Gerstäcker?”

“You know I’m talking about Hyde.”

“Nomura, I don’t think my nephew and his assistant are...”

“Why else would him have kept that insufferable blond manchild around for so long?” the curator argued, causing Strickler to roll his eyes.

Out of all context, that exchange was interesting to say the least.

And then Nomura directed to the group of bored students, “I know contemporary media might lead you to believe European history is full of swords, sorcery and scandals. I assure you, the truth is far more interesting. And there’s no better place to begin than Renaissance era pottery!”

Ms. Nomura seemed super passionate about said pottery, but most of the students sighed (Jim, who knew better than anyone that European history had a fair amount of swords, sorcery and scandals, included).

“Actually, since we have limited time, Ms. Nomura, perhaps it’s best if they explored the museum on their own,” Strickler interrupted, “don’t you agree?”

The curator didn’t really have time to object, as in the very next second, teenagers were running wild in the museum hallways.

“So, check this out, man,” Toby started as they walked down the museum hallways side by side. “So, if I walk fifty thousand steps, I get the t-shirt. A hundred thousand nets me the water bottle. But if I get a hundred thousand, that’s when things get interesting—”

“Can you keep your mind off that bloody chubby tracker for a minute?” said an annoyed Jim.

“Did- did you just used british slang? Man, you’ve been spending too much time with Mr. Strickler.”

He preferred to ignore Toby’s comment, “when you were too busy paying attention to this thing, I was paying attention to Mr. Strickler’s talk with Ms. Nomura.”

“And what were they talking that was more important than my chubby tracker or Steve almost making out with Claire over there?”

“They said something about a bridge, Tobes. Wha-what if… they are… you know, _changelings_?” he almost whispered the last word.

“That’s… a hell of a theory, man. Did you caught something else?”

“I think they were discussing Dr. Jekyll’s sex life too, but that’s unimportant, I guess.” He shrugged.

“Who was discussing Dr. Jekyll’s sex life?” Claire asked, suddenly behind him.

“Mr. Strickler and the museum curator lady, I guess.”

“Oh, I heard them talking about headquarters and bridges, Do you wanna bet that they are all in some sort of weird vampire clan?”

“You’re still on this, Claire?” He snickered.

“It’s a joke. Mostly,” Claire said.

“No, but seriously, I overheard Mr. Strickler and Dr. Jekyll talking yesterday in rehearsal, and something is off.”

“Glad I’m not the only one who noticed.” 

“What were they talking about?” Toby asked, suddenly paying attention to something but the chubby tracker.

“Apparently they both have another job. Something… with a lab? Poisons?” more circumstantial proof. “And someone named Hyde.”

“Jekyll’s assistant. And lover, according to Ms. Nomura,” he added. “Nomura specifically said to Strickler to tell Jekyll she would need Hyde’s help tonight… with the bridge.”

“Right, the vampire cult bridge. Hey, I have an idea. Do you want to break in here tonight with me, when they are doing whatever they plan to do with that bridge? We can figure what is going on,” Claire suggested. Jim was panicking inside.

“Do you really wanna do something illegal?” not his best excuse to keep Claire far away from the museum that night, but it was what he could come up with.

“Not really but I’m curious at this point. Are you in or not?”

“I’m in.”

“You too… hm, Tubby?”

“It’s Toby,” the shorter boy shrugged, “and I think I’ll pass.”

“Oh, okay then. See you later, Jim!” she waved before going to reach to her friends.

“Dude, seriously? You agreed on a trollhunting date with Claire?” Toby barked, almost whispering, after Claire was on a safe distance. “What if you’re right about Strickler, Jekyll and Nomura being evil Troll spies and Claire ends up finding out?”

“First, it’s not a date. Claire is smart! She can help us with this. And even if she ends up finding out, she’ll be a great addition to the team.” He crossed his arms. “And second, why didn’t you agree with coming? You could help me cover up.”

“Thanks, man, I don’t wanna be a third wheel. And good luck explaining everything to Claire when she sees the Killahead Bridge,” Toby said sarcastically, “and oh, when you were too busy sentencing your crush to death by trolls, I saw Eli showing a photo to people of what seems to be… a green slime thing? It’s weird, and if it’s weird, it’s a Troll thing. We’d better check out before your date.”

“It’s not a date!”

**——————————————**

“Voila!” said Toby, pointing to what seemed to be a green slimy creature ran over by a truck.

“Noi voila,” corrected AAARRRGGGHHH!!! “Goblin.”

“Goblin?” Jim asked.

“Ruthless tricksters. Petty street vandals who leave a wake of destruction,” Blinky noted. “This cannot be good.”

“Well, justice was served. Now I need to meet Claire to investigate the museum-changeling thing and then train for Draal. My evening is already busy enough.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea? To get another human into this mess?”

“I’m already a human in this mess, Blinky. Besides, she got into this alone. She’s persistent, wich means she’s going with or without me. And it will be better for her to not be alone if something goes wrong.”

“Yeah, Jimbo has a point,” Toby shrugged, “go off. We’ll assure these goblins don’t cause any more trouble.”

“Thank you, Tobes,” Jim said before taking his bike and heading to the museum.

Claire was waiting for him in the back of the building, the same point they agreed to meet earlier that day. Instead of styled with her usual colored clips, her brown hair was tied up in a ponytail. She wore a purple hoodie, black leggings and combat boots, more practical and settling for a museum raid than her usual blazers and skirts. “You’re late by ten minutes.”

“Sorry, I had to check on something. So, what did you bring?”

“Beyond my phone? Flashlight, a few paper clips if we need to open any locked doors…”

“Do you know how to break locks with this things?” he interrupted.

“I saw a few videos before coming,” she said, “do you know?”

“Kinda, but a crowbar would be easier.”

“I thought of it too, but it didn’t fit in my backpack. So, continuing: two baseball bats if we need to knock someone out, some nougat nummies in case they aren’t there yet and we need to stay in ambush. Garlic and a cross necklace in case we are right about the vampires. You?”

“Wow, you’re really prepared. I also bought a flashlight, two portable phone chargers thinking of the same ambush thing, an easy change of clothes for each of us in case we end up being caught and need to run from something, and a rope. An iron horseshoe in case they are fae. Oh, and a kitchen knife for defense reasons.” The knife was actually in case he needed to defend himself and didn’t want to take out the amulet and reveal his role in this supernatural scheme.

“Fae? Are you sure?” she questioned.

“Just an idea I had. A lot of fae shapeshifter species are described with red eyes.” He shrugged. “Also, I’m pretty sure they leave the second story windows open.”

“Okay… guess we’ll have to put your rope on use.”

**——————————————**

And they got inside.

And the first thing Claire noticed after they silently got into the first story were the voices talking, and those voices came from a room with its lights on.

“And what does that thing work for?” said a male voice with a british accent, but it wasn’t neither Strickler’s or Jekyll’s. This voice was louder.

“This is a fetch, Hyde. It’s to bring new changelings to the surface world. Now can you stop asking questions and actually help me?” this time was a female voice that she recognized as the museum curator.

“Nah, I’m good,” the man (apparently the Hyde guy) answered.

“Is that the Hyde they mentioned?” Claire whispered when she and her co-star were hidden behind something covered with sheets.

“My guess is as good as yours,” Jim mumbled.

“Well, I guess you were right about the fae thing. I mean, she literally said something about changelings. So your guess is better.”

“Keep quiet! They’ll notice us.”

“Sure, but how does your horseshoe thing works? I guess we’ll really need it.”

“As soon as the horseshoe makes contact with their skin, it reveals their true nature.”

“Right,” a few moments of silence, “give me that horseshoe. I have an idea.”

She took the horseshoe from his hands before he had an opportunity to say something, wielding her baseball bat and using it to throw the horseshoe at Ms. Nomura.

“No, Claire, wait…” he tried to stop her, but it was already too late. The woman had already transformed into a tall, pink creature with shiny green eyes. She didn’t know much about changelings and fae, but anything with shining eyes like those weren’t a good thing.

“Holy crap,” she said, before running away from the creature. But it wasn’t trying to attack her. Instead, it went for Jim first.

“I tight I had detected a stink of teenage flesh,” it said at her co-star.

“Claire, run,” he yelled at her in an unsettlingly calm tone, as if he knew this would happen.

“Hyde, do something useful once in your life and go behind her! If she escapes, she can expose us!” the pink thing ordered, and even if she expected another pink thing, she got a short man with a weirdly pointy umbrella running behind her and only a baseball bat to defend herself, while Jim fought the pink thing with his bat and a kitchen knife, “but a human Trollhunter… oh, that I never tasted.”

“I don’t think I have a choice,” Jim muttered, under his breath, “for the glory of Merlin, daylight is mine to command!”

Suddenly, the teenage boy was enwrapped by a blue light that turned into the same silver amour he wore in the audition.

As if that day couldn’t get any weirder. He magically had armour and sword now, wich he could use to knock back the pink monster and go after the vicious umbrella-wielding blond man after her.

“What the fuck is this, Jim?” she asked as they ran side by side.

“We don’t have the time to unpacked all that.”

“Really? You’re quoting John Mulaney? Now?”

“I know this isn’t time, but—” he dodged and attack from the pink changeling, “I’ll explain everything as soon as we get out of here!”

“You’re really naive if you think you’re getting out of here!” the man said, “this job is finally getting fun!”

They both dodged from attacks and green, slimy cat-like creatures. After a long, exhausting fight that was probably cooler to watch than to be a part of, Jim managed to turn the green creatures against the pink monster, and she could knock the Hyde guy with her baseball bat the second he got distracted.

“Great. Now we need to get away from here,” Jim said, grabbing his stuff as they left the museum and took their bikes outside. His armour faded, and he took off his blue jacket, substituting it for a black hoodie. “Here, take off your hoodie and put on my flannel. They’ll possibly call the police on this.”

“Good thinking,” she did as he said, taking her bike as they both headed far away from there.

Uncounted blocks after, they stopped by the woods, both out of breath.

“You better explain this,” Claire said, leaning on a three.

“Then, you better sit down and open that bag of nougat nummies if you want the whole story.”


End file.
